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What Is n8n and Difference From Zapier and Make
What exactly is n8n? And what makes it different from Zapier and Make in workflow automation? Today we’ll find out how to choose among those automation options and boost our productivity.
What is n8n?
If you automate anything in 2025, you will eventually hear three letters that sound like a late-night TV station: n8n.
Pronounced “n-eight-n,” it is an open-source workflow automation platform that lets you connect apps, databases, AI models, and APIs in a visual canvas—while still letting you drop to raw JavaScript or Python whenever you want.
Unlike the purely no-code SaaS tools that dominated the last decade, n8n is self-hosted, source-available, and developer-friendly. You can run it on a $5 VPS, inside your corporate VPC, or even on a Raspberry Pi under your desk. You can also let n8n.host run it for you if you never want to SSH again.
In short, n8n is the automation layer that start-ups use to glue together internal tools, enterprises use to keep sensitive data on-prem, and AI hackers use to chain GPT-4, vector DBs, and Slack bots into autonomous agents—all without waiting for a vendor to ship a new connector.
n8n Core Function Overview
Think of n8n as four superpowers baked into one repo:
- The visual node editor allows users to drag and drop “if-this-then-that” statements onto an infinite canvas.
- Code-by-default—every node can switch to JavaScript or Python; no hidden “code walls.”
- Self-hosting first—MIT-licensed source, Docker image, Helm chart, and queue mode for scale.
- AI-native – native LLM nodes (OpenAI, Anthropic, local Ollama), vector-store integrations, and multi-agent loops.
Other table stakes in 2025:
- 750+ pre-built integrations (Notion, Slack, Discord, Google Sheets, Airtable, Postgres, MQTT, etc.)
- Webhook, polling, cron, SSE, AMQP, Kafka triggers
- Versioning via Git, environment variables, RBAC & SSO
- Docker, Kubernetes, queue-mode with Redis for horizontal scale
- Community nodes: install third-party nodes in one click (n8n.io currently lists 450+).
7 Significant Differences Between n8n vs. Zapier
Here’s the comparison table of n8n vs. Zapier:
| Dimension | n8n | Zapier | 2025 Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Pricing at scale | $0 self-hosted, or $20 cloud for 5k exec | $399 for 100k tasks | n8n |
| 2. Data residency | Full control—runs in your VPC | US/EU cloud only | n8n |
| 3. Code freedom | Any JS/Python inside node | Code Steps limited to 10 s runtime | n8n |
| 4. Integration count | 750+ (growing) | 6,500+ | Zapier |
| 5. AI depth | Multi-agent, local LLM chains | GPT wrapper, higher-tier only | n8n |
| 6. Ease-of-use | Moderate—needs Docker or cloud | Easiest—true one-click | Zapier |
| 7. Retry & reliability | You design manual logic | Enterprise-grade auto-retry | Zapier |
Price reality check
A 200k-task Zapier plan costs roughly $799/month. The same throughput on n8n self-hosted runs on a $20 VPS plus a $5 S3 bucket—97% cheaper. If you are GDPR, HIPAA, or ISO-27001 compliant, the compliance savings alone can fund a small DevOps team.
Performance
SkyWork AI benchmarked identical “Email → GPT → Notion” workflows: n8n median 2.2 s vs Zapier 5.1 s—because the container was warm and closer to the database.
Privacy
Zapier encrypts data at rest but still holds the keys; with n8n you hold the keys, the disk, and the network route. Financial services in Germany and the UAE have already blacklisted SaaS automation for this reason.
5 Big Differences Between n8n and Make.com
Make (ex-Integromat) is the “visual spaghetti” favorite of ops teams. Here is how the two divers will be in 2025:
- Hosting sovereignty
n8n: Docker-compose up, and you own the metal.
Make: Cloud-only; EU data region but no on-prem. - Scenario complexity ceiling
Make’s canvas allows routers, filters, and iterators—great for linear ETL. n8n adds while loops and code nodes that can spawn sub-workflows and even call GitHub Actions, giving it the edge for AI agent loops. - AI capabilities
Make bundles of “AI Assistant” that suggests mapping fields; n8n ships OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, and Hugging Face nodes and lets you run local Llama-3-70B for zero data leakage. - Learning curve
Make it pick-up-and-play for non-coders; n8n demands Docker or cloud signup and basic JSON knowledge—closer to Node-RED or Temporal. - Cost predictability
Make charges per operation (every loop iteration counts). A 10 k-row CSV can burn 50 k ops. n8n self-hosted has zero marginal cost; the cloud is $50 for 20k executions, regardless of loop iterations.
Bottom line
Pick Make if you are a marketing ops manager who needs to visually debug 50 SaaS apps before lunch.
Pick n8n if you want to chain vector DB → LLM → Slack thread while keeping the graph under Git version control.
Decision-making Tips: When to Pick n8n or Zapier
✅ Green flags for n8n
- You have HIPAA/GDPR/ISO mandates—or your CISO just likes sleep.
- You need custom JS/Python (pricing formulas, crypto signing, odd API verbs).
- You want unlimited executions for a fixed infra cost.
- You are building AI agents that loop, remember, and call tools.
- You already run Kubernetes or fly.io and treat infra as cattle, not pets.
❌ Red flags—step away slowly
- Zero technical staff and no budget for freelancers.
- You only need one Zap: “Typeform → Google Sheet,” and it must be live in 5 min.
- You rely on niche SaaS that has a Zapier integration but no REST API docs.
- You hate YAML, Docker logs, and the words “rate limit.”
- Your corporate policy forbids self-hosting, and you need SOC-2 today—Zapier Enterprise still wins here.
One-click to copy our most popular n8n workflows
We have open-sourced the exact blueprints that power a 30-person SaaS on a $15 Hetzner box.
Click “Fork” and paste the JSON into your n8n canvas:
- Lead-Score Bot – web-scrapes + Clearbit + GPT-4 → HubSpot.
- Slack Stand-up Aggregator – daily thread → Notion KPI page.
- GitHub Release → Discord changelog with AI emoji pick.
- Stripe refund → QuickBooks credit note + Slack alert.
- Gmail label “Invoice” → Google Drive OCR → QuickBooks auto-book.
- RSS + LLM summary → LinkedIn company post (auto-emoji).
- Trello card moved → time-tracking Toggl entry + budget check.
- Calendly booked → Zoom link + reminder SMS via Twilio.
- Airtable form → sign PDF with DocuSeal → email counter-signed copy.
- S3 CSV drop → Postgres upsert → Slack anomaly alert if > 2 σ.
Grab them here: https://github.com/your-org/n8n-blueprints-2025
(Replace with your actual repo.)
Sources and referral
Funnel Strategist: n8n vs Make (2025 Review & Comparison) – Funnel Strategist
CoinCodeCap: n8n vs Zapier vs Make (September 2025) – CoinCodeCap
CoincodeCap: n8n vs Zapier vs Make (August 2025) – CoinCodeCap
Wow Labz: Zapier vs n8n: Which Automation Tool Wins in 2025? – Wow Labz
Inovrex: Zapier vs n8n AI [2025]—Which Automation Wins?—Inovrex
Skywork AI: n8n vs Zapier 2025 Which Automation Tool Wins for AI Workflows—SkyWork AI
Latenode: N8N vs Zapier 2025: Complete Platform Comparison – Latenode
Parseur: Zapier vs Make vs n8n – Parseur
